By BRYAN STRICKLAND

bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671

DURHAM -- Duke doesn't officially open its season until Richmond visits Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday night, but the Blue Devils improved to 1-0 on Tuesday in terms of something they put a lot of weight on each week.

Coach David Cutcliffe said his team scored a victory on what he calls "Bloody Tuesday."

"Our team won today," Cutcliffe said, praising his players for unwavering focus and intensity from start to finish. "By design, that should happen on game week."

As the name suggests, "Bloody Tuesday" isn't for the faint of heart.

"Tuesday is definitely our most physical practice," starting tight end Brett Huffman said. "We go full pads and full contact against our scout players, and it's a little bit longer on Tuesdays as well."

Huffman said that as game day approaches, the Blue Devils back off a bit each day to save their bodies, from "Dress Rehearsal Thursday" where they wear helmets while working on special teams and studying the looks their opponents will give them, to a short walk-through on Fridays in shorts and T-shirts.

Cutcliffe said he started labeling each day of game week after his successful recovery from open-heart surgery in 2005.

"That's how I made my comeback," Cutcliffe said. "All I had to do was just beat Wednesday, and then Thursday came around. Before I knew it, I was up and walking four or five miles again.

"I started thinking, 'That would probably work in football.' "

The Blue Devils certainly seem to have embraced the approach.

"If we let Tuesday beat us, then we might get beat on Saturday," quarterback Thad Lewis said. "We weren't going to let Tuesday beat us, and now we're not going to let Wednesday beat us."

20-20 vision

Huffman said that "Bloody Tuesday" workouts were longer than most of Duke's practice days "but nothing to make a fuss about like at Michigan or anything."

Over the weekend, a Detroit Free Press report accused Michigan of breaking an NCAA rule limiting athletes to 20 hours of football-related work per week. Cutcliffe said Tuesday that his weekly practice approach fits within the NCAA limit.

"I've done that and done that well for a long time. I would defy any player I've ever coached to say differently," Cutcliffe said. "You have 20 hours a week, and three hours of that is game time, so you don't have to be an Einstein to come up with a 17-hour plan for the week.

"We have a day off on Monday. We go four hours on Monday and four on Tuesday and three-and-a-half on Wednesday. Then we go probably three on Thursday and an hour-and-a-half on Friday."

To round it out, the Blue Devils also have a brief workout on Sundays.

New faces

Cutcliffe confirmed Tuesday that seven true freshmen are certain to play Saturday. He said that Conner Vernon and Tyree Watkins would see time at wide receiver, with August Campbell, Tyree Glover and Austin Gamble set to play at linebacker and Zach Greene and Walt Canty set to play in the secondary.

"The youth is very evident, and we're having to rebuild depth defensively," Cutcliffe said. "But speed and talent -- particularly with speed -- has never had a bad day in football. Those guys can run, and they'll hit you.

"They're going to be fine. I just hope they're seeing the right way to do things from our older kids."

Cutcliffe said that others might play as well depending on how things develop, a group that presumably includes running back Desmond Scott from Hillside High School.

"Obviously, we would like to redshirt a number, but this is an exceptional class," Cutcliffe said. "I think a number of them can play, but we're thinking about their future and our future. I want to quit having to say 'yes sir' and 'no sir' to the team that we play. We want to be one of those older teams where they take their hat off and say 'yes sir' and 'no sir' to us.

"That comes in time."

New digs

Cutcliffe held Tuesday's news conference in the new Brooks Football Building, a facility just beyond the practice field behind Wallace Wade Stadium that will serve as the visitors' locker room but also contains meeting rooms and a media room that the Blue Devils will use.

"This is a tremendous facility that will serve as a great center for us to use," Cutcliffe said. "Also our visiting teams will be able to dress in here. Hopefully, we will learn that you're supposed to treat them well off the field and not so well on the field.

"We still have to work on that."

In addition, two construction projects that will improve the fan experience should be up and running Saturday -- a building featuring a concession stand and restrooms, as well as a new main scoreboard featuring a JumboTron that covers the entire viewable area.